The third part of the plan has to do with the way BNY Mellon Wealth Management communicates with its customers. "There's too much jargon in this industry with talk of things like 'standard deviation' and 'efficient frontiers," says Hughes. "We have to present to clients what it is we do in a more straightforward way."
A commitment to plain speech is already helping the firm capitalize on prospecting opportunities. Since the downturn that began in 2007, it has been fielding requests from clients of its rivals for "analyses of their investment situations," which have "given us lots of opportunities to show how we can do better for them," according to Hughes.
Case in point: "We had a prospect, now a client, with about $11 million. He thought he was very well diversified, but it turned out that 10 individual equity holdings accounted for 98% of his stock allocation; and 100% of his munis were in California municipal bonds."
Overall, Hughes says that BNY Mellon Wealth Management's plan for the next 10 years comes down to re-writing an "old play book (that) isn't working anymore. We're seeing a need for far more nimble approaches."
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